iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Fun fact: the native Old and Middle English word for "niece" was "nift". If that word had survived into Modern English, I could affectionately call my niece my "nifty"! #diminutive #etymology #linguistics

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

It was my honor to bring Toveema, the indigenous song and dance ensemble of Tovaangar (the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands) to the Opening Ceremonies of this year's Worldcon. #tongva #totoongvetam #toveema #worldcon

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

The Happiest Couple On Earth at The Happiest Place On Earth. #disneyland

A couple at Disneyland, relaxing in San Fransokyo.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It was an honor to bring Toveema, the indigenous Los Angeles ensemble, to this year's Worldcon. Led by my friend and fellow member of the Tongva Language Committee, actress and activist Tonantzin Carmelo, they were the ideal choice to call our community together. #worldcon #acc #tongva #toveema

Toveema performs at the Opening Ceremonies of LAcon V.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Sunday, August 30, 2026, 18:00 What’s In A Name? Creating Names in SFF Most science fiction and fantasy authors say naming people, places, and things is one of their toughest tasks.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Saturday, August 29, 2026, 18:00 The Art and Science of Inventing Mythologies

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Saturday, August 29, 2026, 16:30 Dragons: Friends to Humanity or Evil Monsters?

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Saturday, August 29, 2026, 13:30 The Art and Science of Inventing Languages How do you create a realistic but fictional language from the ground up?

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Saturday, August 29, 2026, 11:10 Reading: Brent Scarcliff Brent will be reading several excerpts from The Earthy Language Cycles, his epic new science fantasy series. @laworldcon.bsky.social #worldcon

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Friday, August 28, 2026, 18:00 Languages and Linguistics in Science Fiction & Fantasy

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Friday, August 28, 2026, 15:00 Being Social: Bookstagram, BookTok, BookTube, Podcasting Have you noticed the flurry of activity on BookTok, BookTube, Bookstagram, etc. and feel like you may be missing out?

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The World Science Fiction Convention Anaheim Convention Center Friday, August 28, 2026, 12:00 A Tour of ‘The Industry’ Let's look at the evolution of L.A.’s world-renowned entertainment industry, from Old Hollywood to the Golden Age to Disneyland to Tinseltown to Silicon Beach.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Looking forward to my appearances at next week's Los Angeles Worldcon, including panels with Fonda Lee, Marie Brennan, Robin Hobb, Ron Moore, and Ryan Cahill. @laworldcon.bsky.social #worldcon #sff

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Topanga < #Tongva Topaa'nga "Rock Mortar Place" < Proto-Takic *tɨh-paha-ŋa < rock + mortar + locative suffix > Cf. #Kitanemuk tɨhpahač "rock mortar" Cf. #Luiseño Tóopamay "Santa Margarita Rancheria" < little mortar place > #etymology #Toongvet #Tovaangar #Takic #Uto-Aztecan [ Scarcliff 2025 ]

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Guy Gavriel Kay @guygavrielkay.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

I love when my translators have questions. The splendid Mikael Cabon in France needs to know if a river in Written on the Dark flows into the sea or into another river: his word choice will be different. When translators are careful it is a gift to an author AND a reminder to protect them from AI.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Seattle in 2025 highlights: Table talks with @gwillow.me, Diana Ma, Michael Michel, and @jeremyteg.bsky.social. My fanboy moment with @fondalee.bsky.social. Hanging out at Ludi’s, Freya, The Crumpet Store, Vivienne’s and Zema.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Congratulations to the author of my all-time favorite novella series (The Singing Hills Cycle), @nghivo.bsky.social, on her latest award. The Hugo for Best Short Story goes to “Stitched to Skin Like Family Is”!

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Dylan and I are eating our way through seattlein2025.org. Highlights so far: Ludi’s for a Filipino breakfast; The Crumpet Store for an English breakfast; The Original Deli for bulgogi; Zema for an Ethiopian/Eritrean dinner. Yum!

seattlein2025.org

Seattle in 2025

Welcome to Seattle Worldcon 2025! Building Yesterday's Future—For Everyone. August 13–17, 2025.

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Kate Elliott @kateelliottsff.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

My grimsweet fantasy road trip (on foot) lands today w/ a humble deputy courier forced to guide uppity court officials on a back country route that includes a ravenous fungal ghost plague, court intrigue, & a mysterious haunt. First of a duology (bk 2 in Nov). us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Cover of The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott has a purplish/pink background tone (but tasteful!). In the background rise three mysterious towers and a gateway. The path to the gateway is lined by massive statues of warriors with the bodies of humans and the heads of beasts. Two tiny figures stand in a splash of sunlight as they contemplate entering the compound with the towers.

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Nghi Vo @nghivo.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Anyone in San Diego wanna come hear me read and talk about my new novella Don't Sleep with the Dead? I'm at the legendary Mysterious Galaxy tonight at 7!!! www.mystgalaxy.com/41525Vo

mystgalaxy.com

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Nghi Vo @nghivo.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

On in 30 with Dahlia de la Vega at Skylight Books! (Oh my gosh, this place is gorgeous...) www.skylightbooks.com/event/skylig...

skylightbooks.com

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Tariq Ashkanani @tariqashkanani.bsky.social · 10/04/2025

It’s launch day for THE MIDNIGHT KING!!! Super excited to finally see this book out in the wild. If you like dark, grizzly, serial killer thrillers, then check it out now 😎 www.waterstones.com/book/the-mid...

waterstones.com

The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani | Waterstones

Buy The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani from Waterstones today! Click and Collect from your local Waterstones or get FREE UK delivery on orders over £25.

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Lawrence Shaw @lawrence-shaw.bsky.social · 22/03/2025

An exciting day to share the incredible results of our excavations at Farley Moor standing stone last October www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

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RJ BaHarker @rjbarker.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Oh, Canadian and US friends, looks like GODS OF THE WYRDWOOD is cheap at all good ebook retailiers. Why not read about people coming together to stand up to a really unpleasant society? We love to see it.

The cover of Gods of the Wyrdwood. white with a weird tree like face on it.

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia @silviamg.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Took the train early this morning to Seattle for Emerald City Comicon, where I'll be at a couple of panels and signing books at the Del Rey both. Tired and melancholic and anxious. Like I've said before, what a time to be both Canadian and Mexican.

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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 16/02/2025

Preorders for the Black Library celebration kick off next Saturday. Apparently if you buy a BL book there's a freebie collection with stories from me and 3 other sterling authors. My story, Web of Ruin, may contain spiders... www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articl...

warhammer-community.com

Sunday Preview – Get ready for the Black Library Celebration - Warhammer Community

Piles of books, and new miniatures for The Horus Heresy.

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia @silviamg.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

This writer has been facing awful challenges, including health issues. They could use a donation, if you have a few dollars to spare.

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Magnus Pharao @magnuspharao.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

Uto-Aztecan reconstrution of the day (i.e. I just made it today): Proto-Corachol-Nahua *pɨ̒tse "to kiss" Pre-Nahua: *pɨ̒tse-wa Cognates: Nahuatl pitsoa Sta. Teresa Náayeri: pɨ̒itse'e Probably derived from PUA *putsa "to blow" (Maybe I should have saved this for Valentine's day...)

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Silvia Moreno-Garcia @silviamg.bsky.social · 03/02/2025

Enter a giveaway for the Spanish language translation of my novella Prime Meridian aka Meridiano Cero. Open worldwide. Pueden ganar una copia de mi novela corta Meridiano Cero, recientemente traducida al español por Estela Peña Molatore y publicada por Minotauro. gleam.io/wkvZb/meridi...

gleam.io

MERIDIANO CERO giveaway

Win a copy of MERIDIANO CERO Shipped anywhere in the world *** Signed copy of the Spanish translation of the novella Prime Meridian/Meridiano Cero. Copia autografiada de la novela corta Meridiano Cer...

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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 26/01/2025

I am having so much fun writing this new book. My characters, less so.

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Adrian Tchaikovsky @aptshadow.bsky.social · 24/01/2025

This is the absolutely magnificent map that Katrin produced based on my Echoes of the Fall series. It's an incredible piece of work.

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Alison Fisk @alisonfisk.bsky.social · 10/01/2025

The remarkably well-preserved York Helmet is one of only six surviving helmets from Anglo-Saxon Britain. A Latin inscription bears the name of its owner ‘Oshere’. Discovered by a digger operator in Coppergate, York, in 1982. Iron and copper alloy, dated AD 770-775 📷 by me #FindsFriday #Archaeology

The Anglian York Helmet is composed of four main elements; a composite cap (brown in colour), two hinged cheek-pieces (also brown in colour) and a curtain of ring mail as a neckguard. The brass-coloured nose guard is covered with intricate interlaced animals. The 'eyebrows' have animal-head terminals, and an inscribed copper alloy band that runs over and across the crest of the helmet. The interlacing animals on the nose guard have open lips, comma-shaped eyes and spiral hips. Between the ‘eyebrows' and facing downward, is a larger animal head with a rounded snout and comma-shaped eyes, like those on the nose guard. This animal has ears on either side of its head that merge with the inscribed copper alloy band. An inscription on the band reads:
'IN. NOMINE. DNI. NOSTRI. IHV. SCS. SPS. D.
ET. OMNIBUS. DECEMUS. AMEN. OSHERE. XPI.'
This abbreviated Latin inscription may be translated as 'In the name of our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, God and with all we pray. Amen. Oshere. Christ.'

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ANU Press @anupress.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

‘The poetic use of ritual language creates a world of metaphor and imagination.’ The origin narratives in our latest title come from two long-established domains on the island of Rote in eastern Indonesia. Get your copy and learn more: doi.org/10.22459/RVR...

ANU Press New Release
Cover image of Ritual Voices of Revelation
The Origin Narratives of the Rotenese of Eastern Indonesia

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ANU Press @anupress.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Our newest title is a grammatical description of the Warlmanpa language, a Pama-Nyungan language of Australia presently spoken in Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and surrounding country Purchase a copy or download for free doi.org/10.22459/GW.2024 #morphology

ANU Press New Release
Cover image of 'A Grammar of Warlmanpa'

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Matthew Scarborough 𓏎 @mattitiahu.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

Briton Chieftain Calgacus, Against the Venture Capitalists and Techbros, 83/84 AD

Raptores orbis, postquam cuncta vastantibus defuere terrae, iam mare scrutantur: si locuples hostis est, avari, si pauper, ambitiosi, quos non Oriens, non Occidens satiaverit: soli omnium opes atque inopiam pari adfectu concupiscunt. auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant. (Tacitus, Agricola 30)

Robbers of the world, now that earth fails their all-devastating hands, they probe even the sea: if their enemy have wealth, they have greed; if he be poor, they are ambitious; East nor West has glutted them; alone of mankind they covet with the same passion want as much as wealth. To plunder, butcher, steal, these things they misname empire: they make a desolation and they call it peace. (trans. Hutton & Peterson, revised by Ogilvie, Warmington & Winterbottom, Loeb)

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Ola Wikander @olawikander.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Kuchean Tocharian (Tocharian B) word of the day: Or ("wood"). From PIE *doru- ("wood". cf. Sanskrit dāru, Hittite tāru- etc.); the disappearing *d is sometimes argued to be a sign of a glottalic element in the "plain voiced" sounds of PIE, i.e, a preglottalized sound turning into a glottal stop.

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

What's the collective noun for a passel of dachshunds? A snuggle of dachshunds? A daemonium of dachshunds? A cacophony of dachshunds? A party pack of dachshunds? A delirium of dachshunds? A delightfulness of dachshunds? A doggedness of dachshunds? Other ideas? #dachshunds #doxies #dogsofbluesky

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Putri Prihatini @putriprihatini.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

A poster of "Bilbo's Last Song (at the Grey Havens)", printed over artwork by Pauline Baynes, published on 26 November 1974. Tolkien first composed it in Old Norse as Vestr um haf ("West over sea") in early 1920s. His secretary, Joy Hill, rediscovered it in 1968, and Tolkien gifted it to her.

A poster depicting a painting of Grey Haven harbor, with three Hobbits standing on top of a hill, looking at it. They stand under a large tree with several bowls and a squirrel perching on it. A sailing ship can be seen sailing away. On top of the painting is Bilbo's Last Song poem.

Bilbo's Last Song
(At the Grey Havens)

Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!

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Prof. Dimitra Fimi @dimitrafimi.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

So, the “Perspectives on Fantasy” book series (Bloomsbury) I’m co-editing with @mjrsangster.bsky.social and Brian Attebery has grown! 6 books out (left) and more due out soon (right)! And even more that don’t have a cover as yet! Will post updates! Series website: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/pe...

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Prof. EAGZ @emmmilygz.bsky.social · 25/06/2024

Another successful conference on the books! Feels good to be back at it. Slides for all three of my talks are up on my website if you're interested in Austronesian vowel harmony, lexical sources of Proto-Yapen, or artificial language learning experiments and unnatural phonological patterns! 🧪 🐦🐦

emilygasser.wordpress.com

Publications & Presentations

Want a copy of something I haven't linked to here? Email me! Dissertation 2014. Windesi Wamesa Morphophonology. Committee: Profs. Claire Bowern, Stephen R. Anderson, Ryan Bennett, and Mary Dalrymple (...

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Prof. EAGZ @emmmilygz.bsky.social · 23/10/2024

I wrote chapter 76 (out of 76) on vowel harmony in Austronesian. But wait, you say, Austronesian doesn't really have much vowel harmony? Turns out it does! Loads of it! It just tends to be more subtle, more limited in its domain, and generally underreported

First page of my chapter, Vowel Harmony in Austronesian Languages

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Ilocano bislák "sliver, splinter; piece of split bamboo; the name of a river in Bacarra" < perhaps a blend of Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *biseqak "to split" and Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian *siqelak "split or cleaved" #eotd #etymology #wotd #austronesian

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Ola Wikander @olawikander.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

Thread of all my currently published books! (1/x): First: "Unburning Fame: Horses, Dragons, Beings of Smoke, and Other Indo-European Motifs in Ugarit and the Hebrew Bible" (2017) and "Drought, Death, and the Sun in Ugarit and Ancient Israel: A Philological and Comparative Study" (2014)

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Brent Scarcliff y Ashburn @mythologist.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

#Ilokano lángit "sky, heaven" < #Proto-Austronesian *laŋiC "sky" Cf. #Hawaiian lani "sky, heaven; heavenly, spiritual; very high chief, majesty; royal, exalted, high born, aristocratic" #eotd #etymology #wotd

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